On Hamlet’s Crypt: Effi Briest, Asta Nielsen, and Britney Spears

Abstract

This contribution looks at the way instinct is transmittedand represented as ghost appearance. The essay elaboratestwo basic theses: first, that instinct is not definedby creaturely heritage, since it is not a testable structurein itself, nor subject to mourning and developmentalprocesses; and second, that works of fine literature andpop oeuvres alike may serve as carriers of a ghost transmissioncharged with instinctive heritage. The studyrepresents a model for reading ghostly genealogies thatcomplement the familiar and familial reproductive onesas it draws on traditions such as the adultery novel, continentalphilosophy, psychoanalysis, and Disney.Currently based in Berlin, Viola Kolarov has taught inthe German Departments of the Johns Hopkins Universityand New York University. She has published onShakespeare, contemporary art, film, and pop culture.Her forthcoming book, “Shakespeare and the Autobiographyof the Machine Age,” rethinks Goethe, theGerman translation/transmission of Shakespeare, andthe German literary tradition in the contexts of mediatechnology.Originally from Berlin, Susanne Lanckowsky enteredthe Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, class of Franz Ackermann,in 2007. Since 2009 she has shown solo and ingroup on numerous occasions and studied abroad withprestigious scholarship support for one semester at theFaculdade de Belas Artes Universidade do Porto, Portugal,and for another semester at the Escuela Nacional dePintura, Escultura y Grabado La Esmeralda in Mexico.